General comparison between major activities

The most striking feature of Table 4.1 is the shift between domestic work and personal care between 1975 and 1985. The time devoted to domestic activities declined by 17 hours a week between 1975 and 1985 while the time spent on personal activities rose by 12 hours. This finding is consistent with the findings of some studies in the United States and Japan (Robinson, 1985; Nakanishi and Suzuki, 1986) but different from that of Staikov (1989).

Robinson (1985: 295-297) hypothesized that the domestic time of unemployed American women should increase because unused energies for market activities could plausibly be directed toward domestic work. However, women reported spending less time in domestic activities in 1975 than in 1965. Surprisingly, the decline in domestic time for American women came during a time when there were few major breakthroughs in labour-saving devices (Robinson, 1985: 299). Robinson speculated that the reduction in time spent on housework must have been due to other factors. Similarly, Nakanishi and Suzuki reported that women in Japan spent less time in domestic work in 1985 than in 1970. On average, the weekly number of hours devoted to housekeeping tasks fell by four per cent (Nakanishi and Suzuki 1986: 6-7). By contrast, Staikov's (1989: 16) study of the Kazanluk population in Bulgaria showed that the time spent in household chores per

these studies can perhaps be attributed to the definitions of domestic work used. Staikov (1989), for example, counted crop production time as part of domestic work, whereas this study includes farm activities as market work.

Women's market activities could have increased in Laguna between 1975 and 1985 because a number of manufacturing companies were established, infrastructural facilities were built and technical innovations in agricultural production occurred. The construction of roads and the electrification of the

barangay would have enabled women to enter business or expand the sale of their existing operations. The figures in Table 4.1 suggest that the time spent on market activities rose between 1975 and 1985, but the increase was not statistically significant. The lack of necessary training and educational qualifications and increasing age may have prevented many of the women from participating more in market activities, particularly in the manufacturing sector. For instance, a manufacturing firm in the study area employed only those who had secondary level of education and were between the ages of 18-26. The majority of the women in the sample had not completed secondary education and were already comparatively mature. On average, women had attended seven years of education (equivalent to the first year of secondary education). By 1985, the mean age of the 101 women was 40. Age, according to Reynolds (1971: 21-22) and Mackay et al. (1971: 361), is one of the most important factors in hiring. Firms usually prefer younger workers if all conditions are equal for two reasons: their stronger physical ability in terms of adaptability, speed and persistence, and the longer period over which to collect the returns for training provided by firms after hiring new workers.

Table 4.1 Mean number of hours (per week) that women devoted to activities, Laguna, Philippines, 1975-1985

Activity 1975 1982 1985 F-ratio Domestic work 6 4 .4 4 4 .1 4 7 .4 1 5.8* * * Shopping 3.9 4.0 3.7 0.1 Meal preparation 25.9 14.5 16.1 28.4*** Clothes care 9.9 9.2 10.5 0.5 Child care 15.9 10.6 9.8 2.5*

Other domestic work 8.8 5.8 7.3 4.9***

M arket work 17.1 20 .8 2 2 .1 1.1

Wage work 7.3 7.1 7.9 0.1

Crop production 3.7 3.8 1.7 1.6

Animal husbandry 1.4 1.2 1.8 1.3

Other market work 4.8 8.7 10.7 2.7*

Personal care 86.5 103.1 98.5 7.6***

Total 168.0 168.0 168.0

Number of cases 101 101 101

Sources: Laguna data sets, 1975,1982 and 1985

Notes: Except in 1985, the mean number of hours for personal care was computed by deducting home and market work from 168 (24 hours x 7 days). The mean number of hours for personal care in 1985 was asked from the respondents.

Total number of hours may not add to 168 due to rounding

The one-way analysis of variance with repeated measures was used to determine the significance of differences in the number of hours devoted to each activity by surveys. ♦♦♦Statistically significant at a = 0.01

♦Statistically significant at a = 0.10

In a similar manner, the intensification o f rice production was hypothesized to have increased women's market activities, but this assumption also appears to be unfounded. As noted, the number of hours devoted to market work remained stable between 1975 and 1985. In another study conducted in Laguna, it was found that farm mechanization and the introduction of high-yielding varieties actually reduced

in the middle of 1960s resulting in an increased demand for labour during the first ten years. However, after this period the use of hand tractors reduced the amount of men's labour needed in land preparation, while the use of herbicides and threshers deprived women of their traditional occupations. Furthermore, men who had been displaced by farm machinery competed with women in transplanting, weeding, and harvesting, exacerbating the impact on women's employment opportunities.

The figures in Table 4.1 suggest that the number of hours devoted to market activities increased between 1975 and 1985; however, the changes were not significant. The lack of significant change could be due to the large variation in the number of hours devoted to market activities. The number of hours spent on market activities ranged from as low as one hour to nearly one hundred hours per week depending on the type of market activities these women were engaged in. As mentioned in Chapter 3 and earlier in this chapter, women who were involved in vegetable growing and livestock raising spent only a few hours on these activities. By contrast, women who had their own businesses spent long hours looking after their sari-sari stores or peddling their wares from one village to another.

The lack of significant increase in the number of hours devoted to market activities was not only confined to the 101 women who remained in the sample throughout the period but also to women who were interviewed once or twice but dropped out in the later years, referred to as the 'other group of women' in this analysis. In the 1975 survey, 517 women met the criterion of belonging to a complete family where both parents lived with their children at the time of the survey, while there were 193 and 142 such women in 1982 and 1985. Table 4.2 shows that the time spent on market activities by the 'other group of women' was similar to that of the 101 women in every survey year as shown in Table 4.1. The earlier explanations that the stability of women's market time was due to old age and lack of necessary skills were also found among the 'other group of women'. By

1985, the mean age of the 'other group o f women' was 42 and the mean number of

years o f formal education (7 years) was the same.

Table 4.2 Mean number of hours (per week) that the 'other group of women devoted to activities, Laguna, Philippines, 1975-1985

Activity 1975 1982 1985 F-ratio Domestic work 54 39 48 17.3*** Market work 17 20 21 2.1 Personal care 97 109 99 8.2*** Total 168 168 168 Number of cases 517 182 142

Sources: Laguna data sets, 1975,1982 and 1985

Notes: Except in 1985, the mean number of hours for personal care was computed by deducting home and market work from 168 (24 hours x 7 days). The mean number of hours for personal care in 1985 was asked from the respondents.

Total number of hours may not add to 168 due to rounding

1 Includes women who were interviewed once or twice but dropped out in the later years, thus the number of respondents varied for each survey year.

The one-way analysis of variance with repeated measures was used to determine the significance of differences in the number of hours devoted to each activity by surveys. ***Statistically significant at a = 0.01